The Section of Cardiology, the Rush Heart and Vascular Institute and the Center for Congenital and Structural Heart Disease at Rush University Medical Center are deeply committed to the three pillars of academic medicine: delivering the finest care to our patients with cardiovascular disease; educating the very best academic physicians who will become leaders in their field; and furthering medical knowledge through the pursuit of innovative research in cardiovascular disease. There are six fellowship positions offered each year.

Our institution is one of the largest hospitals in Chicago and one of the busiest tertiary and quaternary referral centers serving the Midwest. Between Rush University Medical Center, Rush Oak Park Hospital, and John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, our trainees are exposed to the entire spectrum of acute and chronic cardiovascular disease.

Rush Oak Park Hospital is a major community-based affiliate of Rush University Medical Center and is located in the western suburbs. This 176-bed hospital provides exposure to a patient population different from that seen at the primary downtown facility.

In an effort to provide a balanced and comprehensive clinical experience, fellowship training in cardiovascular disease also takes place at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago's primary public service hospital which serves Chicago's large immigrant and indigent population.

The physical facilities at Rush University Medical Center include state-of-the-art Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, including a Bi-Plane Hybrid Catheterization Laboratory and three Electrophysiology Laboratories. All forms of cardiac catheterization, intervention and radiofrequency ablation are carried out on a routine basis. A modern 28-bed coronary intensive care unit (CICU) and a 24-bed medical intensive care unit (MICU) are used in caring for patients with complex cardiac problems and cardiomyopathy.

Echocardiography at Rush is extremely active, performing over 10,000 routine transthoracic studies per year, as well as over 2,000 transesophageal and stress echocardiography procedures. More than 3500 nuclear stress tests are performed each year using various stress modalities and protocols. Positron emission tomography (PET), cardiac MRI, and 64-slice CT scanner multi-detector coronary CT angiography are available as routine diagnostic modalities. Our fellows obtain additional CT MRI training in conjunction with the nearby University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) program.